[Diana de Cabarrus]

Liou Bian songwriting journal

[Anonymous]

Idea using inverse chords

I’d like to add a melody to it, and maybe try to add 1 more harmonic sections to it as well. Any feedback is welcome, feel free to share your thoughts thanks!

[Anonymous]

adding better recording of tune above here

[Diana de Cabarrus]

Hi Liou. Great work. I like how this transitions half way through to higher voicings and how you then change chords but retain the same melody note on top.

Plenty of ways to approach writing melodies – but this is already showing development.

[Diana de Cabarrus]

Do you also have a note of what these chords are?

[Anonymous]

Inverse chords’ tune:
Dm A G A
Dm A G Gm A
Dm C F C
Dm (with descending root down to A) A5

[Anonymous]

Melodies with 2 chords exercise
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tdimb07g5w960dg/Melody%202%20chord%20exercise.mp3?dl=0

chords: Cm – G
first one starting from the 6th
second one starting from the 2nd
third one starting from the 4th

2 questions:

I tried to start the melody when second chord would start with the equivalent intervals of the second chord, but still using the scale of C minor. Is that correct?

I was unsure if I should finish, or start with the interval used for each exercise in the second chord. I don’t play much melody everytime when the second chord plays because of this indecision.

being the 2 chords a bit slow paced, I felt like the need to put more notes, but tried to keep it simple

[Diana de Cabarrus]

Hi Liou
this has some nice atmosphere. When it comes to the second chord, you are correct that you want the note to be in relation to that chord (this is how your ear will interpret it anyway). You don’t need to use a C minor scale necessarily. C minor will differ from G major in having the notes of Eb and Bb – Bb sounds tense against G major as it is the minor third of G. You probably want to avoid that – in the example above, your ‘featured’ notes sound atmospheric, but that minor third against the G major chord sounds a bit less deliberate and it might be harder to make that level of tension work.
Keeping it simple is excellent at this stage. We really want to hear what the shape of the melody is. Imagine if someone was singing this and you’ll be along the right lines.

[Anonymous]

5/4 exercise

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yziztkvbttceu1d/5-4%20fingerpick.m4a?dl=0

Half-cheated this one, stumbled upon an acoustic guitar song that has a section on 5/4 and I simply tried to emulate his fingerpicking pattern with a different harmony, but it got me to practice this rhythm so I thought I’d post it anyway

[Anonymous]

Simple tune built on top of the 5/4 exercise with rhythm ideas – it’s starting to get interesting, I’ll keep building on top of it!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6eqxj28d4pc5tfn/SPOF_v0.mp3?dl=0

[Diana de Cabarrus]

This sounds great! I like the changes in the layers as you go along. It works fine as it is, but if you did want to extend it, what would some of your possibilities be?

[Anonymous]

Object writing

To not clutter the forum, all my object writing will be in this google doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15OTQPx0RCsd2laS_7ebkaDgLvhS4TKQN0yvbznqQs1w/edit?usp=sharing

[Anonymous]

progress update to 5/4 song – implemented change to 4/4 around the end – not bad! https://www.dropbox.com/s/rba353ism1s18o6/SPOF_v0_8.mp3?dl=0

[Diana de Cabarrus]

Good experimenting with the changes in rhythm. One thing you might also want to do with that arrangement is think about where the builds and dips are, and exaggerate them. It’s very tempting with a textural arrangement which uses loops to add elements on top of one another, and this can be effective, but we soon start to ‘tune out’ things that are repeating. It can be very effecting removing some elements as the composition progresses so that you are deliberate about what elements of the musical material you are foregrounding at any one time. Another way of developing it would be to introduce further harmonic change – so some different chords.

For the object writing, you have made a good start, and you can see that any one idea can trigger a lot of associations. From every one of those associations, you can go on to develop more material. One thing which will help is to write the senses at the top of each heading, so

[Anonymous]

added new section and melody with it.

Temporarily put drums to get build up, but not too sure about it, it’s like there only for 10 seconds in the song, doesn’t feel quite right?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uumch89jomea464/SPOF_v0_95.mp3?dl=0

just re-listened, I think I’m going to make another chord progression after my melody of the final section to have it close properly

[Anonymous]

Ok that’s me done – just adjusted volumes a tiny bit here and there and added some echoes in the final section

[Anonymous]

Lyric writing: words and sentences

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1eV8FldP0xbmrUKG6d5qb8rFt_TF5pvJBMwQdfvefg/edit?usp=sharing

[Anonymous]

A complete first version of the lyrics

A
Snow is turning into ice
It’s all that I can see
Wind is howling in the void
Black glaciers waiting me to sleep
I’m shaking
This bleached-out silence
Is burning
Wishes and apologies
Are wounding

B
Old frames are shrinking
Buzzes and green pixels, they haunt me
Dreams keep getting mixed up with reality
For self-defense
For self-defense

A
For self-defense
Hallucinations of a spring
Are warming
Blue ocean and red rays
Are floating
Wrong melodies and fear of lost relief
Are melting

B
Old frames are shrinking
Buzzes and green pixels, they haunt me
Dreams keep getting mixed up with reality
For self-defense
For self-defense

[Anonymous]

guitar and vocals rough recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s98emhkex35oxyu/DTOW.m4a?dl=0

[Anonymous]

very very rough midi recording

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m5qqw4qbu3cmgh4/InverseChords%20-%20strings%20production.wav?dl=0

[Author]

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